After hearing Jacks Mannequin were heading to the UK for a string of live dates, I was determined to get my hands on the hottest piano player ive ever seen - Andrew McMahon - and grill him on life in the spotlight. After all, he’s been through so much to get to where he is today, safe in the hearts of thousands of fans.
Jack's Mannequin
How have you enjoyed your UK tour?
It’s good, my wife is here tonight and after we’ve been here we’re going to fly to Paris for a break. But I’m loving being in the UK, I’ve been itching to get out here for years now and with Something Corporate we came out here quite a lot and then on the Jacks record I’d tried really hard to get out here but with the events of me being unwell and trying to really focus on getting the record going in the States we didn’t get chance to come so it means a lot that we’re here now.
What has been your all-time favourite gig to date?
You’ll think I’m bullshitting you but there is one obvious one which was a Something Corporate show which we did at the London Astoria. When we came here I really wanted to go back there but then they told me; “There’s no more London Astoria.” so it’s a little depressing!
You released your last record, The Glass Passenger, last year, how did you find the reception?
It’s been out for about five or six months now and it was seemingly good but I don’t make a point to go trawling fan sites or things of that nature. I try to keep my head uncluttered by that sort of thing but perception-wise it seems to have come across well and it’s selling well and now we’re getting the chance to introduce people to it around the world!
Can you sum up your music in just five words?
Melodic Piano-Driven Rock n’ Roll. Can I have rock n roll as one?
Yeah, I suppose! So is there a certain process you go through when writing?
I hate to call it a process, I think usually you end up finding yourself having a guy feeling as an idea needs to get out and that can come from a certain feeling emotion or feeling or even something you see walking down the street. There’s always something that motivates me to go and sit down at the piano and put my hands on the keys and just start making noise to see what comes out! It’s not rocket science, it’s definitely more instinctual.
And if someone was going to listen to you for the first time, what one song would you advise them to listen to?
That’s a good question! I think there’s a track of our last record called Dark Blue that as become a banner track and persists as a fan favourite and sum’s up a lot of the elements of what we do as a four-piece rock band. It has the earnestness and the sentiment of a lot of what we do.
Why do you think people should spend £10 on one of your CD’s or a ticket to your gig?
I think in anything I do I try to be honest and we all get up there with a lot of energy and I have an amazing band that back me up and we try to put on a good rock concert… my goal isn’t to beat up the competition, haha! [FF: We like that!] It’s not really my style, haha, but if you want to come watch a rock and roll concert then I think we’re a pretty good band to catch.
What three bands would you have to headline your dream festival?
Oh gosh, Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers, Id say The Beach Boys, but they’re not really knocking around much these days… oh and the Chilli Peppers or something along those lines.
If you could only listen to one CD for the rest of your life, what would it be?
I’ve been asked this many times and I always change the answer, but I think it could be Wildflowers by Tom Petty. It’s one of his solo records and is one of my favourite records; it’s pretty dynamic.
And if you could join any band for a day, which would it be?
I guess it would be a band that needs me so it wouldn’t be one with a piano player! I’d like to sit in with the Flaming Lips, it sounds like fun. They always put on a fun show.
So now we want to ask you three non-musical questions…What is one thing you always wanted as a child but never got?
I have a good answer for this actually; I always wanted one of those Power Wheels cars. They were little kid cars that actually had motors in them and went about 4 or 5mph, they had Jeeps and Ferraris. I asked for one every year until I was too big to fit inside.
I used to want one of those with the holes that you could run along with your feet!
I thought everyone had one of those? Unlucky! You should talk to your mom about that, or steal one… it brings a new meaning to car jacking!
What was the most terrifying moment of your life?
I was in a car accident when I was 16. I was driving a car with my mother and rolled it one and a half times on the freeway, it was in the rain and we were upside down on the road. I would say that’s the most terrified I’ve ever been, it was my first real brush with death.
If you could take over a foreign country tomorrow, what country would it be and what would be your first law?
In these times? Jeez, I don’t know! It would be easy to say the US at this point but we’re hoping our man’s going to do a good job! If I was to take over the US though I would call for Campaign Finance reform so that no longer would politicians be able to receive money from any other source other than themselves.
I think that’s the biggest problem in politics, the fact that our politicians are basically owned by major corporations, I think it’s a terrible element of our political system.
We ask everyone we interview to come up with a question for the next person we interview and Emma Deigman wants to know; “If you could be anywhere in the world right now, where would you want to be?”
Oh wow, I would like to be in Bali in the middle of the jungle.
And can you come up with a question for the next person I interview?
Have you ever had an In and Out burger?
Read our review of the evening here
FemaleFirst - Ruth Harrison